This is what Black folks have consented to for generations. That’s the point. The same people that actively oppress us get our unwavering support every four years. The anti-busing stance runs counter to what our leaders fought against at the time. The adverse effects of mass incarceration are still reverberating through our communities. I could ‘move on’ from these issues if they’d been adequately addressed, but they haven’t. I cannot and will not move on from these issues until they are addressed. Period.

Biden’s problem is that he hasn’t made any substantive effort to address the issues that he’s caused. Yes, most people in politics voted for the Crime Bill in the ’90s. But Biden was a driving force behind the tough on crime theme of the ’90s. He not only wrote the Crime Bill, but called for H.W. Bush & Reagan to be even tougher on crime than they already were. To top it all off, he considers a white woman that also has a history of pushing mass incarceration the top choice for his running mate.

Why would anyone in their right mind trust that administration to address our racist criminal injustice system? The idea that this man can offer Black America little to nothing and still get the vast majority of our votes is asinine. It doesn’t matter that Trump is worse when Biden and the rest of the party aren’t addressing the systemic issues in our communities. Our votes are the most powerful tool in fighting our oppression, and it’s time that we leverage our votes on substantive policy demands.